Danny Wallis: Who is The Blocks controversial mega-buyer?

One man dominated auction day on The Block again this year, offering “insane” bids on several of the 2021 houses.

Danny Wallis’s bids made for several jaw-dropping moments during the auctions this year, just one year after he bid on every single house in the 2020 season, ending up buying three of them.

And he repeated the feat this year, buying another three houses - and entering an at times maddening array of down-to-the-cent specific bids. 

His antics last year led host Scott Cam to declare it “the most unbelievable day in Block history.”

So who is Wallis, the mysterious, deep-pocketed man who splashed out almost $12 million in one day on The Block two years running?

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A JAW-DROPPING CONFESSION

Wallis appeared on Fifi, Fev & Byron’s 101.9 The Fox Melbourne radio show after last year's finale to discuss his weekend buying spree. He was a man of few words, explaining that the thinking behind that near-million-dollar jump in his opening bid was “just to have a bit of fun.”

“It was an expensive day... but we’ve been locked up for the last few months, so it was time to go shopping,” he said.

Remerkably, Wallis also indicated he hadn’t even fully inspected the three houses he bought.

“I don’t actually like going in a lot of houses I buy, because I don’t like seeing what people live like. I just buy them on the outside.”

He also revealed he only watches the Sunday night reveals on The Block, and doesn’t bother with the other episodes, hinting he’s not a big fan of the show. “I don’t watch it, I find it a bit... yeah. I just watch the reveals.”

A BIZARRE BLOCK HISTORY

The super-rich IT entrepreneur will be a familiar face to Block fans – he bought Mitch and Mark’s property in 2019 for a tidy $3.374 million, having bid on all five properties.

In 2020, he bought Sarah and George’s house for $4 million-and-two-thousand, to be exact (unusual bids are something of a trademark for Wallis), Daniel and Jade’s for $3.8 million and Harry and Tash’s for $4 million.

While he lost out on the other two houses for sale last year, he put in a good fight – in one jaw-dropping moment he raised the bidding on Jimmy and Tam’s house by almost $1m in a single bid.

Block viewers with longer memories might remember Wallis’ flamboyant antics during the 2012 South Melbourne season of the show, where he purchased one of the properties for $1.4 million while flanked by women in t-shirts emblazoned with his company’s logo.

It was that stunt and his penchant for bizarre, confusing bids that saw him labelled a “a bit of a nuisance” by Block buyer’s advocate Frank Valentic at the 2019 auctions.

But Wallis had some choice words of his own: He insisted he never even watched The Block and complained that the auction had been “slow” and “stupid.”

“I’ve never been at an auction where people get five minutes think time,” he said.

“Danny is a local businessman here in Melbourne … We’ve seen him at a Block auction before, and he has a tactic of confusing everyone in the crowd,” Block presenter Shelley Craft explained during last year’s finale, after Wallis offered a bid that left the auctioneer flummoxed: $3,308,050. The auctioneer quipped that it was “$3,308,000 and half a litre of petrol.”

But he’s not all flashy stunts: He reportedly let Ronald McDonald charities use his 2012 Block house for free for several years after he purchased it.

SO WHAT DOES HE DO?

Starting his career at ANZ, Wallis then founded I.T. service management company DWS in 1991, which has since grown to encompass offices around Australia and New Zealand. Wallis is the CEO and Managing Director.

And this may explain why Wallis was so eager to flash the cash on The Block last year: In September 2020 DWS was bought by Indian tech giant HCL Technologies for $126 million in cash.

WHAT HE’LL DO WITH THE HOUSES

His showboating might annoy those he’s bidding against, but there’s a heart under those antics. Wallis has grand plans for one of the houses he purchased. Knowing South Australian farmer couple Daniel and Jade have a child with severe health problems, Wallis purchased their home to donate to My Room Children’s Cancer Charity.

“What an amazing day it was and a real thrill to buy the three houses. I was so impressed with the builds this year, the location in Brighton, and the potential as an investor for the properties in the future,” Wallis said in a statement released by Nine.

“The My Room Children’s Cancer Charity do so many wonderful things for sick children and their families, and they will benefit so much from having access to Daniel and Jade’s amazing home.

“It is made extra special for me because I know Daniel and Jade have been through so much with their daughter Isla over the years, in and out of hospital, and they will understand just how important the house will be for My Room and all the incredible work they do for sick children and their families.”

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